General Class Information

Assignment 1: Ed. Tech Assignments


Assignment 2: Wiki

Assignment 3: Blog

Blogging in Higher Education
This article emphasizes the idea that blogging allows everyone, but especially students, to create a larger connection to the material within it. Blogs allow students to interact and engage within a community of users, therefor making the interactions more meaningful.
Why Should Educators Blog?
This teacher's blog shares her personal experience with starting her own blog and how it impacted her teaching. She found that blogging gave her an avenue for self-reflection, self-evaluation, communication and project planning. In addition, blogging gave her a reliable vehicle to record and tweak lessons over many semesters.
Blogging; A New Threat to Student Research?
This article explores the possible dangers of over-reliance on blogs as sources for information for research and information gathering in general. With students ever more reliant on web-based media for sources of information, do educators need to be concerned about problems with the reliability and credibility of information?

Assignment 4: Lesson Plans that Integrate Technology

This lesson combines internet research with design elements. This format could be adapted to be used to create various products (PowerPoint, poster using school supported software, flyer, etc.) for almost any place including settings in books, historical locations, states or countries, governmental buildings (state capital, courthouse, etc.). A great extension would be to actually visit the locations.
This very detailed outline of several lessons designed to build background knowledge is exactly the type of in-depth front-loading that many students will benefit from, but is essential in order for ELL students to understand higher level texts and concepts.
This website has pre-designed Jeopardy Games using PowerPoint on various topics for elementary, middle and high school levels. These games would be especially useful for unit review and/or test preparation. There is an option to create your own game as well.

Assignment 5: Lesson Plan



Assignment 6: Web 2.0

TumbleBooks
TumbleBooks is an online e-reader designed for libraries and schools. There are several features of the site, but mostly it reads book alound. I like this site especially for ELL students who may not be on grade level in reading. There are so many uses for teachers ranging from motivating reluctant readers during independent time to author circles to non-ficiton options. TumbleBooks is a great option for when you want students to concentrate their energies on content rather than decoding.
Pixton
create comic strips to use as teaching tools (or better yet, have the students create their own!)
Talking Pets
create your own talking pet message
EdModo
like Facebook for a closed group (can be used for a group, class or school)
ThinkQuest

Assignment 7: Educational Game or Tool

Learning Games
Learning Games has a lot useful games that I use to reinforce skills taught in the mainstream classroom and/or build background. I also like this website because I can find something useful for almost any student I am working with regardless of grade or level. Another bonus: it also has lots of links to other helpful sites.
Academic Skill Builders
coolmath4kids
funbrain.com
What is Spelling City? (YouTube video)
Spelling City
BrainPop (gbdoty, 54321)
PBSkids.org
BiteSized
tagxedo
create word clouds in the shape or image of your choice

Assignment 8: Discussion Questions

completed